The present invention generally relates to financial transactions and more specifically to a system and method for changing participation status in a loyalty program on a portable device.
With the continuing demand for using information to provide an enhanced consumer experience, acceptance point (e.g., point of sale) devices and portable devices may be leveraged to provide a personalized experience for a customer during a purchase transaction at a merchant. For example, a loyalty program may be provided where customers are awarded incentives for shopping at certain merchants participating in the loyalty program. As part of the loyalty program, consumers are issued portable devices to enable a consumer to participate in the loyalty program.
The portable device generally can be used for various purposes. For example, the portable device can be used for purposes related to program participation, such as participation in a loyalty program, as well as other purposes. For a portable device that is used in connection with a loyalty program, such device typically includes a loyalty module that includes hardware, software, or any combination thereof, that communicates with an acceptance point device when any transactions with the portable device are desired. The portable device can be, for example, a smartcard. In addition to the loyalty module, the portable device may also include other modules, information and data that are not related to a loyalty program.
Under conventional practice, when a portable device with the loyalty module is issued, the participation status of the consumer is permanently set to active, i.e., the consumer is automatically opted into the loyalty program. As a result, since the participation status cannot be changed, the consumer will always participate in the loyalty program offered by the issuer of the portable device. If the consumer desires to change his or her participation status, the consumer will then have to be issued a new portable device with a new loyalty module and the participation status set to not active. Accordingly, when a consumer uses the new portable device, the consumer will not be eligible to participate in any loyalty programs. Therefore, whenever a consumer desires to change his or her participation status in a loyalty program, the consumer is issued a new portable device with a new loyalty module.
Issuing a new portable device every time a consumer wants to change his or her participation status has many disadvantages. For example, for the issuer perspective, it is very costly to issue a new portable device every time a user desires to change his or her participation status. Moreover, the reissue of new portable devices for every status change impacts rate of participation, since consumers might not want to participate in a loyalty program if the consumer has to have a new portable device issued every time a change in participation status is desired. Thus, the benefits of providing loyalty programs are compromised because consumers may become less willing to participate in any loyalty programs due to the inconvenience involved.
Hence, it would be desirable to provide a method and system that is capable of efficiently facilitating changing of a consumer's participation status in a loyalty program.